The present invention relates to visually displaying display content, such as a musical score, representative of a time-wise or temporal transition of a music performance, and recording audio including comments etc. related to the display content.
There have heretofore been known various electronic apparatus having a function for displaying display content, such as a musical score. Among examples of electronic apparatus having such a display function is a musical score editing apparatus constructed to display on a screen a musical score that is a representative example of music performance content and add a visible explanatory memo or note to the displayed musical score (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2007-108292). The musical score editing apparatus disclosed in the No. 2007-108292 permits efficient impartment of explanatory graphics and insertion of explanatory text by, among other things, the arrangements that:
A. in response to a user only designating a type of an explanatory graphic and pointing to a particular symbol for which an explanatory memo or note is to be made, a mark of a size matching a size of the particular symbol is added;
B. in response to the user surrounding a particular symbol, for which an explanatory memo or note is to be made, with a line handwritten using a pointing device, a standard explanatory graphic surrounding the particular symbol is displayed; and
C. if an explanatory statement is to be input in text within an explanatory graphic, text input is started in response to the user only double-clicking a mouse on a desired text input position without switching from a graphic input mode to a text input mode.
Further, in recent years, tablet-type portable terminals (hereinafter referred to as “tablet terminals”) have been in widespread use. Thus, in many cases today, a tablet terminal is brought to a place where a musical instrument is to be played, and a musical score is displayed on the tablet terminal to be used in place of a paper musical score.
In a case where there is some other person, such as a human player or instructor, than a particular person in an ensemble performance, performance lesson or the like, the particular person may sometimes write down, or take a note of, instructions of the other person on a musical score. If, in such a case, a musical score displayed on a tablet terminal is used, the particular person will input information to be written down in letters/characters (i.e., by text input) after or without imparting a mark to a designated position on the displayed musical score. However, even with the technique disclosed in connection with the conventionally-known musical score editing apparatus, mark imparting and text inputting efficiency can be enhanced only to some degree; besides, it would take considerable time and labor to select a type of a mark, and also it would be difficult for the person to execute the text input while holding a musical instrument.
Also known is a technique in accordance with which, when voice or audio recording is to be performed in a conference room or the like, an index mark or audio bookmark is recorded in association with a desired time position in recorded data so that, in reproduction, the recorded data at the time position imparted with such an index mark or audio bookmark can be selectively reproduced (known, for example, from Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. HEI-09-320148 or U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0119292). Further, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0251440 discloses that a memo or note handwritten-input or text-input is recorded as additional content in synchronism with the audio bookmark so that the additional content (memo or note) too can be reproduced and displayed as the recorded data at the audio-bookmarked time position is reproduced. However, the technique is not arranged to impart the audio bookmark in association with a particular time position within display content, such as a musical score, representative of a temporal transition of a music performance.